LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:03 AM Page 1
No. 26 • March 2014 leasidelifenews.com
A challenge to debate Page 28
Is the new Laird battering Bayview? DEBATE: Kettel vs. Ashworth, Pages 20-21
‘Bayview is heading for a depression’ By PATRICIA PHENIX
“Bayview is in a recession and is heading for a depression. Unless Leasiders shop regularly on this street, it will be gone, and soon.” That is the grim forecast of Nancy Penny, owner of Absolute Beauty, a skin-care salon on Bayview Ave. Penny has operated her business for over 34 years and has watched at least seven stores close over the past year, including most recently the restaurant Chai, Yeh! and The Mad Italian. She predicts many more will follow. “Bayview used to be prestigious, now it’s not. I have never in my life seen the lack of people on the street.” She particularly mourns the loss of boutique stores. “The more the interesting little stores go, the more people come at night. There are simply fewer people during the day.” Penny attributes the business failures primarily to high rents. “The landlords are greedy. What people don’t realize is that tenants must pay for everyBAYVIEW, Page 8
LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:03 AM Page 2
Leaside Life, March 2014
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McRae resident wins Agnes Macphail award Sheila Lacroix of McRae Dr. has been chosen winner of this year’s Agnes Macphail Award, by the award committee. At our deadline we were waiting for city council approval. She has a long history of service in the Canadian Federation of University Women Leaside-East York (CFUWLEY), the Legislation Standing committee of the CFUW Ontario Council, Leaside United Church and the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health. During her years of volunteering she concentrated on topics ranging from cyber-bullying, women in the boardroom and Ontario immigration strategy. At Leaside United, council chair Graham Lute said she was “THE advocate for pastoral care, visitation and caring for the needs of others – in particular our youth and seniors. [This] took great courage on Sheila’s
LORNA KRAWCHUK
Better Seed…
ATTRACTS BETTER BIRDS
part and her advocacy was rewarded with a strong pastoral care program that was the envy and a true ‘Best Practices’ example for the United Church as a whole.” In typical Lacroix fashion, she is helping to select the charities who will receive the donations towards this year’s Macphail Award, collected by The East York Foundation. Lacroix was nominated by Judie Arrowood of Millwood Rd. The official presentation will be at a public ceremony, Monday, March 24 at 7 p.m. in the True Davidson Council Chambers at the East York Civic Centre, 850 Coxwell Ave. The evening will also feature the VOCA Chorus of Toronto, this year’s winner of the Agnes Macphail Public Speaking Contest, and a speech focusing on Agnes Macphail by Leaside resident Jane Pitfield. ■
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LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:03 AM Page 3
The oldest person in the world to row alone across the Atlantic
Leaside Life, March 2014
Jean-Guy Sauriol moved into the Kilgour Estates about a year ago with the aim of doing something no one else in the world had done. On Feb. 6 he did it: He became the oldest person to cross the Atlantic Ocean as a solo rower. He started the trip on Nov. 23 in the Canary Islands with 4,828 kilometres ahead of him to Barbados, hoping to get there in 75 days. He made it in 74 days and three hours, a little after 3 p.m. He had turned 60 on Dec. 31. That made Sauriol, born in Montreal, the oldest of two other Canadian solo rowers, and the fastest. Why would he have wanted to take on such a daunting trip? Blame that on a rowing machine he bought in 2010 while he lived in Lawrence Park. It gave him the idea. He was obviously in great physical shape. Two years earlier he had completed the Ironman competition in Hawaii (after starting swimming lessons at the advanced age of 35).
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Jean-Guy Sauriol with his wife Lucie Cossette and son Jean-Christophe. He got himself psyched up reading 15 books on conquering the Atlantic and all last year practiced on Lake Ontario, which wasn’t quite the same. On the real trip, with a 6.4-metrelong boat named Maple, that he jokes was “unsinkable like the Titanic,” but was self-righting, he capsized twice. The Maple had internet access, a satellite phone, a three-month food supply and a gadget that could wake
him up when another boat was within 25 nautical miles. No liquor. He did four three-hour rowing sessions each day, all for three charities: the Breakfast Club of Canada, the Actuarial Foundation of Canada (he had been an actuary) and the Children’s Breakfast Club of East Northumberland Secondary School. He raised over $10,000. On his birthday French Canadian newscasters called to sing Bonne Fête to him. ■
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LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:03 AM Page 4
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Leaside Life, March 2014
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Veteran Trace Manes rink volunteers, from left, Neil Anderson, Al Keskikyla and Gary Rollerson.
Whither Trace Manes rink? By ALLAN WILLIAMS The outdoor rink at Trace Manes Park has had a great run this winter after two years when the weather didn’t co-operate. “With the right conditions the rink could still be in operation until the first or even second week of March,” says Gary Rollerson, one of the team of volunteers that looks
after cleaning and flooding the rink over the winter. But compared to the good old days, signs of declining interest are evident. In addition to Trace Manes, there were at one time outdoor rinks in at least three other Leaside locations: in Sandy Bruce Park, in Talbot Park behind the high school, and at Northlea school. Now the nearest alternative is at Davisville and Mt. Pleasant. The number of skaters is definitely down from a couple of decades ago and the veterans have a few theories as to why. “For one thing, it’s not as inviting as it was,” suggests Rollerson. “You used to be able to put on your skates and use the washrooms inside the community centre where it was warm. For whatever reason, that’s no longer permitted. The music’s gone, and there’s not enough light to skate at night any longer.” Rollerson recalls that for many years the boards for the hockey rink were set up on top of the baseball diamond at the west edge of the park, and a second ‘pleasure rink’ filled most of the right field area between the hockey rink and Rumsey Rd. “It was massive, with lights and pumped-in music. You would see boys on the hockey rink and girls and couples on the bigger pleasure rink – it was kind of a date night.” Another factor is the growing popularity of back-yard rinks. Rumsey Rd. resident Kirk Harding used to help at Trace Manes when his own kids were first skating there. But now he prefers building his own back-yard rink, and he’s enthusiastic when he talks about it. Harding says he knows of a
LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:03 AM Page 5
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Leaside Life, March 2014
dozen or more such rinks just within a few blocks of Trace Manes Park. At Trace Manes most of the work is done by volunteers. The city’s parks department puts up the boards in late fall when the ground first freezes and provides a hose and key to access the water. That’s it. Alan Keskikyla has been helping out since 1992, when his son and daughter were first old enough to skate on the rink, and he took over as co-ordinator in 1997. “You need about a week of minus five temperatures and a bit of snow before you can start to put the water down,â€? says Keskikyla. “The layer of snow underneath keeps the ice white, which reflects the sunlight rather than absorbing it,â€? he explains, “so the ice lasts longer. “Last year we made ice several times but it never lasted more than a day or two before it melted. And the winter before that there was just no chance; but this winter has been ideal.â€? This year they started making ice right after Christmas. “My son used to spend hours on the rink playing hockey with his friends,â€? recalls Keskikyla, who lived on Rumsey Rd. at the time. “When he got older, he helped out with the flooding too.â€? Even though both his children have since gone off to university, he’s stayed involved perhaps, he says, out of a sense of nostalgia. That’s a theme echoed by Rollerson and fellow volunteer Neil Anderson, both of whom grew up in Leaside and remember skating outdoors at Trace Manes in the 1960s and ’70s. “It’s been a Leaside tradition since I was a kid and even before that,â€? says Anderson, “and I wanted to make sure my own kids had a chance to share in that tradition, which is why I got involved in helping Alan,â€? with whom he also curls once a week. On some days, especially on weekend afternoons, you can see as many as 20 kids playing hockey at Trace Manes. Sometimes the kids are out skating with their parents. Will this Leaside tradition continue for another generation? To some extent the answer will depend on the weather. Will future winters be cold and snowy like this year? Or more like the warm conditions of the previous two years? And in any case it will depend on community support. “We need new volunteers if we’re going to keep it going,â€? says Keskikyla, who is handing over the co-ordinator’s role at the end of the winter after 17 years. He suggests that anyone willing to help can reach him through the parks department.â–
LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:03 AM Page 6
The winner of the Valentine watch
Leaside Life, March 2014
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PATRICIA PHENIX
Sylvia Crossley says, “I never enter contests.” Except she did for the $795 Movado watch for Valentine’s raffled off at Bell Jewellers, of Bayview, on Feb. 10, and she won. She entered, she said, because “I wanted to show my support for business owners in this community.” A supply teacher, and a resident of St. Cuthbert’s Rd. in Leaside since 1988, Crossley was picked out of 88 entries at the draw by Photis Philos at Bell Jewellers. The firm has been on the street for 77 years. ■
To advertise in Leaside Life: 416-486-7387 www.leasidelifenews.com Photis Philos fastens the $795 Movado watch to the wrist of winner Sylvia Crossley
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LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:04 AM Page 7
By JOHN PARKER, Ward 26 councillor I have recently begun a review of a 1990 Metro Toronto report on a proposal to extend Leslie St., widen the Bayview Extension and link the south end of the resulting roadway to Bloor St. The proposal will be familiar to many Leaside residents. The report ranked the proposal as the most favourable of several options under consideration at the time for improving transportation conditions within what was defined as the Don Valley corridor. Other proposals were: implement improved transportation system management, including incentives for high occupancy vehicles, etc.; add more buses, raise bus service standards, and imple-
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ment reserved bus lanes and new bus routes; improve GO transit rail service; and widen Don Mills Rd. and/or Victoria Park Ave. Also on the list of options to be considered: do nothing. Of this option the report made the following helpful observation: "[a]lthough the 'do nothing' alternative would involve the least direct costs and effects on the natural environment, it would offer no improvements to existing and future traffic operation problems, community intrusions in South Leaside or accessibility to the Leaside/ Thorncliffe Park areas.” (Although probably not on the basis of that particular insight, it was of course the "do nothing" option that was in effect adopted.) The interesting thing from my point of view is that the report estimated the construction cost for the recommended option – creating a direct link from the bottom end of Leslie to Bloor via a widened Bayview Extension – to be not much over $100 million. Those were 1989 costs expressed in 1989 dollars, of course, but the price tag does give some perspective to the $1 billion cost that my colleagues on city council recently took on in opting for a three-stop extension to the Danforth subway line in preference to the previously agreed seven-stop surface rail alternative. I intend to comment further in the months to come on the 1990 Metro recommendations and possibly some other measures aimed at addressing traffic and other car-related matters involving our community. ■
Leaside Life Published once a month in Leaside,Toronto ON, by Ruth G. Publishing Inc., 66 Donegall Drive, Toronto ON, M4G 3G5 Circulation 8,500 to every door in M4G PUBLISHER: Lorna Krawchuk EDITORIAL: Harry Goldhar, Patricia Phenix ADVERTISING: Ruth Goldhar GRAPHIC DESIGN: L. Choy
416‐486‐7387 leasidelife@gmail.com www.leasidelifenews.com
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Leaside Life, March 2014
Leslie St. extension is back in discussion
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LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:04 AM Page 8
Bayview |
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Leaside Life, March 2014
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thing on the buildings. That includes property taxes, carrying costs and insurance. In the end, our profit margin is virtually non-existent.” Rhonda Fruitman, owner of Whatever Lola Wants, an accessories boutique that features jewellery made by Canadian designers, agrees. “Nobody can entice local businesses at the prices of the rents now,” she says. Fruitman recently conducted an unofficial survey of the street, and discovered that owners of small independent businesses typically pay an average rent of $6,000 a month. Her landlord recently lowered the rent, but she does not see that as an act of altruism. “I’ve warned him over the last two years that’s there’s a problem on Bayview. I suspect that now he sees the status for himself.” Dom Badali, the owner of Badali’s Fruit Market, is even more candid about rents. “If I didn’t own this building, I’d have been out of business 30 years ago,” he says. He sees the free parking at Laird shopping centres as a big culprit, along with Toronto’s failure to perform maintenance on the streets in a
PATRICIA PHENIX
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Nancy Penny timely manner. That includes snow removal. “They put No Parking signs on the street last Saturday and Sunday (early February), so they could plow the snow, then they never came!” he says. “For two days we lost all that business, and what was the point of it all?” “Honestly, it’s gotten to the point where as fast as they put the no parking cones down, we [business owners] put them back,” Penny says. A snow storm last December, then the ice-storm a week later, also devastated businesses on the street. Penny believes that shoppers reacted by cocooning at home and buying online. Fruitman also says that Leaside money appears to going someplace else. “Nowadays a shopper’s priority is searching for deals,” she says, adding, “You want to live in Leaside, so it is important that that is where you put your money.” The building of the LRT, and the prospect of single lane restrictions both east and west along Eglinton, further exacerbates the fears of Bayview retailers. “No one will turn left,” says Penny. “The LRT is going to kill the business for many years to come.” Meanwhile, the debate over the establishment of a Business Improvement Area has raged among the street’s retailers for years. “It only takes one who’s against the idea to kill it,” says Badali, who believes the collective power in a BIA would give owners some clout. Though Penny also supports the creation of a BIA, she empathizes with the struggle some owners face in paying for maintenance. “Some owners simply don’t have a dime to spare after expenses,” she says. It is Fruitman, though, who sounds the loudest alarm in her struggle to keep her business afloat, saying simply, “I don’t know how much fight I have left.” ■
LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:04 AM Page 9
Exploring the seedy sex life of the Beatles
Jeff Walker appetite for female company that Walker finds the most shocking, in light of what he refers to as his “religious piety�. Paul McCartney impregnated several women prior to marrying his first wife, while John Lennon's attraction to members of both sexes drew rumours of bisexu-
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Leaside Life, March 2014
PATRICIA PHENIX
As does everyone, Leaside author Jeff Walker likes sex. And he likes the Beatles. Fortunately for readers, he likes them together. Walker, 61, has composed a rollicking tale of the seedy, often sad, yet always titillating behind-the-scenes erotic adventures and misadventures of the fab four entitled Sex and the Beatles (SomethingNow Publications, Toronto). Told in a series of anecdotes, the book traces the Beatles’ sexual exploits as mop-top rockers playing nightclubs in Hamburg, Germany, to their struggles to keep their marriages intact as rich, middle-aged superstars, each pursuing his own creative path musically. “These guys were sexually decadent in the extreme,� says Walker, whose interest in the group began in 1964 during their first North American tour, “and the extent to which they were motivated from the get-go by the availability of casual sex with groupies was a revelation to me.� It was perhaps George Harrison’s
ality. Originally from Montreal, Walker came to Toronto in 1980 to try to escape the cultural tensions caused by the Quebec referendum. Shortly after his arrival, he commenced his first book-related job selling the Great Books of the Western World (a companion set to the Encyclopedia Britannica) door-todoor in Leaside. He had been told that the neighbourhood was a great place to raise a family. A few years later, when his father and step-mother were visiting the city, Walker took them to the Bayview Playhouse to see The Little Shop of Horrors, a play as renowned for its music as it was for its kinky sexuality. “At the time I certainly couldn’t have imagined that a decade and a half later I’d be living in a house a stone’s throw from the Playhouse raising a daughter (15) and a son (13),� he says. In 1998, he purchased a house on Donegall Dr. Walker expresses mild disappointment that his children do not share his passion for all things Beatle.
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LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:04 AM Page 10
FREE REPORT ON LEASIDE HOUSE SOLD PRICES
Leaside Life, March 2014
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“My 11-year old boy is at the stage where he groans 'Yuck' whenever anything the slightest bit romantic comes on the TV screen,” he says smiling, adding that his daughter’s musical tastes similarly lie elsewhere. “In many ways, Leaside is a throwback to the ‘50s,” he adds, referring to the neighbourhood’s renowned conservative tastes. Nevertheless, he derives comfort from recharging his creative batteries in local bolt-holes such as Rosie’s Diner and The Second Cup, both on Bayview Ave. Sex and the Beatles is Walker’s third book. His first, entitled The Ayn Rand Cult, was published by Open Court Press in 1998. His second, Let’s Put the Beatles Back Together Again 1970-2010, by SomethingNow Publications, appeared in 2010. Walker plans on releasing even more books about the Beatles in the near future. The first, 600 pages to be divided into two volumes, is almost complete. The title is Beatle Irony: 1,111 Confounding Twists of Fab History and 1,111 More From the Solo Era. These books will be followed by two more offerings, one tentatively called Beatles Humour and the other Beatles Drama. ■
Check
www.johnparker.ca
for news and updates
Councillor
John
Parker WARD 26 · DON VALLEY WEST
councillor_parker@toronto.ca Toronto City Hall 100 Queen Street West, Suite A13 Toronto ON M5H 2N2 www.johnparker.ca
LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:04 AM Page 11
Leaside Life, March 2014
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LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:04 AM Page 12
LEASIDE STOCK INDEX
First the bad news: First two stocks did badly
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Leaside Life, March 2014
By WILL ASHWORTH RioCan (REI-UN.TO) and First Capital Realty (FCR.TO) are two of Canada’s largest real estate owners. Together they own 362,000 square feet of Leaside retail and office space including Leaside Village, 1670 Bayview, 180 Laird, RioCan Leaside, Sunnybrook Plaza and 1860 Bayview, home of a future Whole Foods store. As you can see they’ve got their hands in a lot of pies. If you shop at any of these locations you’re directly contributing to their financial success. Following my “everyday investing” mantra, you might want to get some of that back by owning one of their stocks. Should you own both? You could. However, for the purposes of this article I’m going to tell you which of the two I think is the better stock to own. In the long-term they both make good investments. First, let me tell you the bad news. Both stocks performed poorly in 2013 (RioCan and First Capital Realty’s total returns were -5.1 percent and 1.4 percent respectively) when compared with the S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index Fund (XIC.TO), which delivered a total return of 12.5 percent. So far in 2014 the results haven’t been much better but it’s still very early. The good news is that they’re both great stocks to own if you’re an income investor. In 2013, RioCan paid out $1.41 in distributions to its
shareholders representing a current yield of 5.6 percent . First Capital Realty paid out $0.84 for a yield of 4.9 percent . Even if their stock prices don’t move in 2014 you’ll still end up with a good 5 percent return. In essence you’re being paid to wait for capital appreciation. What distinguishes the two companies, who compete in many of the same markets, is that RioCan has 9 million square feet of retail space in the U.S. to go with its 44 million square feet in Canada. In 2009, RioCan CEO Edward Sonshine moved to take advantage of commercial real estate bargains in the U.S. It was a smart move that’s paid off. First Capital, on the other hand, has 24.3 million square feet of gross leasable area, all of it here in Canada. Financially, these two companies have very similar balance sheets in terms of debt to total assets, etc. They’re both rock solid. For me, what makes RioCan the better stock is its Jan. 29 announcement made in conjunction with joint venture partners Allied Properties REIT (AP-UN.TO) and Diamond Corp. that will see the development of seven and a half acres at Front and Spadina that used to belong to the Globe and Mail into a mixed-use neighbourhood (dubbed The Well) of retail, office and residential properties. RioCan owns 40 percent of the joint venture, Allied another 40 percent and Diamond the remaining
20 percent. Toronto Councillor Adam Vaughan says of The Well, “It’s a project that breaks the mold of your typical downtown development project… It really is proactive, community-based planning at its best.” This kind of project doesn’t happen without visionary management. For this reason I believe RioCan is the better stock — but just. ——— All 20 stocks in the Leaside Stock Index had a terrible January, none worse than Best Buy, which saw its stock drop 41 percent on poor holiday revenue. Leaside’s already been affected by this as the Future Shop in RioCan’s Leaside Centre shut permanently on Jan. 24. Look for the LSI to bounce back nicely in February and March. ■ LEASIDE STOCK INDEX 2014 YTD Performance through Jan. 31, 2014 Total % Return YTD Leaside Stock Index American Stocks (including currency) Canadian Stocks ETF Benchmarks SPDR S&P 500 ETF - including currency - excluding currency S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index Fund
-7.41 -11.11 -3.18 1.03 1.11 -3.52 0.93
LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:04 AM Page 13
This month at the library
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Leaside Life, March 2014
Memories of Leaside Revisited: Share your memories of people and places in Leaside. Bring any photos, memorabilia, questions or stories. Guest speakers: Karen Fraser, Fred King and John Naulls. Wed., March 19, 2-4 p.m. Layers of Leaside Exhibit: Encore presentation by the Leaside 100 committee. March 19-March Recent Light, Karin Fediw Art Exhibit March 1-31 22 in the community room. Monday Afternoon Book Club: Books Made Into Movies. Discussion on suggested titles. No registration required. Mon., March 24, 2-3 p.m. Author Visit: Brent Pilkey, author of Toronto-based Rage Mystery series. Wed., March 5, 7-8:30 p.m. Youth Advisory Group Meeting: Volunteer at the library and receive community hours. Wed., March 26, 4-6 p.m. Girl Power Anti-Bullying Workshop: For girls 12-17. Wed., March 12, 4-6 p.m. March Break Programming: Arm’s Length Puppets presents Dandy Lion (for ages 4-12). Free tickets available 30 minutes before the show. No daycares or day camps please. Tues., March 11, 11-12 noon. Family Movie matinee, Mary Poppins, Thurs., March 13, 2-4 p.m. Heritage Ontario: Tuesdays, March 4, 18, 2-4 p.m. Information, Ms. Saunders, 416-422-0450. Art Exhibit: Recent Light, paintings by Karin Fediw, March 1– 31. Leaside Garden Society: Gardening from a Hammock. Author and master gardener Dan Cooper presents low-maintenance gardening for sun and shade. Thurs., March. 13, coffee at 7.15 p.m., presentation at 7.30. ■
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Leaside Life, March 2014
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January home sales show upward trend
LEASIDE SALES BY STREET 2013 VS. 2014 YTD
By JETHRO SEYMOUR Leaside-Bennington Heights January home sales on MLS continued to trend upward in 2014. Here is a 12- month look at the current averages, up to Jan. 31. Sales volumes changes All homes – up 9.6 percent, to 206 sales. Detached homes – up 3.3 percent, to 155 sales. Semi-detached homes – up 35.3 percent, to 46 sales. Dollar value changes All homes – up 5.2 percent, to $1,275,817. Detached homes – up 7.7 percent, to $1,445,143. Semi-detached homes – up 5.8 percent, to $751,910. This past January, 10 homes changed hands in Leaside and Bennington Heights, which was slightly less than the 11 homes that sold in January, 2013. The average dollar value of those transactions was up by 45 percent mostly due to all 10 homes being detached. In the previous January, five of the 11 homes that sold were semi-detached. The value of the detached homes also grew by 11.9 percent to $1,633,750, compared to the six de
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Jethro Seymour is a broker at Johnston & Daniel. All figures are from the Toronto Real Estate Board’s Multiple Listing Service. LEASIDE HOME PRICES JANUARY 2014 Home Type
Average Price Average Price Leaside City of Toronto
All - Month
$714,292
$552,395
All - Year-to-Date
$714,292
$552,395
Detached - Month
$1,633,750
$888,210
Semi-Detached Month
None Sold
$622,319
Condo Apartment Month
$233,671
$366,020
Condo Townhouse Month
$221,116
$335,743
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Leaside Life, March 2014
tached homes averaging $1,460,000 that sold in January 2013 The highest valued sale here on MLS so far in 2014 was $2.580 million, for a home in Leaside, followed by $2.550 million in Bennington Heights. The lowest valued sale was $833,000 for a bungalow, a new lot value indicator for a 30’ x 125’ lot on a busy street. As of Feb. 5 there were 22 homes available in Leaside. They range from a two-bedroom semi-detached home on Crofton listed for $649,900 to a beautiful home in Bennington Heights listed for $2,895,000. â–
LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:04 AM Page 16
Bring your Leaside memories to the library
Leaside Life, March 2014
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Leaside Life columnist Karen Fraser, local history buff John Naulls and Fred King, a former resident whose father owned a variety store here, want to hear your memories and see your photos and memorabilia of Leaside at the library Wednesday, March 19. They will be speakers on the returning date of the popular Layers of Leaside exhibit created last year during our 100th anniversary celebrations. It will be on display again until March 22. The meeting will be in the library’s community room. It is part of the East York Historical Society’s five annual afternoon Show and Tell discussions throughout the year. Starting time 2 p.m. ■
LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:06 AM Page 17
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By PADDY DUNCAN Councillor John Parker wrote in the last Leaside Life about the importance of planting the right trees in the aftermath of the December ice storm. It was a good start, but…. He is indeed correct that not all trees are created equal, but the trees he lists as having suffered the most serious damage are almost all weed trees, ones you won’t find in any nursery and that simply “volunteered”. Birds, squirrels and the wind dropped seeds in our yards, and voila: Siberian elm (which horticulturalist and author Michael Dirr refers to as “one of, if not the, world's worst trees…”), Manitoba maple, crack willow, and white mulberry. Three out of the four are non-native and all four are considered invasive. White elm is usually referred to as American elm in North America and is all but wiped out in the city because of Dutch elm disease. Black locust is not native to Ontario, is considered a minor invasive species and may withstand urban conditions well, but it is very weakwooded, dropping branches in even minor wind storms. Leaside is home to many mature Norway maples, which are non-native and now classified as invasive, as most of you who have spent many hours yanking seedlings from your flowerbeds and lawns will agree. It does make a good urban street tree, as do its many cultivars, but its use should be reduced. So, where does this leave us? We need to increase the diversity of our urban trees and reduce or eliminate the use of invasive alien species. But it’s not quite that simple. Trees aren’t like cars – you can’t just pick the make and model you like and expect it to be happy wherever you park it. They all have particular growing requirements, and sadly, some of our most spectacular native species, like Sugar Maple, are quite intolerant of urban conditions like salt and air pollution. While they might survive in your backyard, they’d be a very poor choice for a boulevard tree on a major street. White pine is also intolerant of air pollution and road salt, but survives in backyards in the neighbourhood.
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Leaside Life, March 2014
Even some native trees won’t work in Leaside
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Leaside Life, March 2014
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Ash, with quite a number of native varieties that are very well adapted to urban growing conditions, have become a very poor choice because of the invasion of the Emerald Ash Borer. Rather than rule out the use of non-native species entirely, our focus should be on creating a healthy mix of native species that tolerate urban conditions, including air pollution, soil compaction, salt contamination and lack of water; and selected alien species which do not threaten our native varieties. A few species to consider include oaks, hackberry, Freeman maple (a cross between red and silver), gingko, Kentucky coffee tree and cork tree. Paddy Duncan, Broadway Ave., is a graduate of U of T’s landscape architecture course. ■
Local realtor offering free tree seedlings Local realtor Charlene Kalia is offering free tree seedlings to help restore Leaside’s tree canopy. charlene@charlenekalia.com
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LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:06 AM Page 19
Library basement had other memories for me Memories of Old Leaside
someone would ask. One night a hoody guy who was in a motorcycle gang asked me to dance. (Motorcycle? Gang? Really? I never saw a “hog” parked on the street, or even in Leaside for that matter. But I digress.) Looking back I think he asked me because I was nearly as tall as he was. Pairing with a petite person would make him look like he was alone. As he held me in his powerful arms (Harlequin Romance talk) the wire in my underwire bra somehow escaped from my sweater and twisted into his. When the music stopped and he wanted to walk away without a backward glance as befits a man of machismo, he discovered that we had become very close. Whose hands should separate us? The word awkward was invented right there. He was furiously whispering in my ear, since he could not move,
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Karen Fraser
about what we would now call his street cred. Just before his escape I thought the gangsta’ was going to cry. Late one spring, just before school was out, my grandmother told me that my cousin from Victoria was coming to Toronto with her parents on their way to Europe. Her name was Sharon Fraser. She was my age and I was to entertain her. I decided to take her to a dance at the library. She told me on the ride there that she had never been to a dance like this before. I had guessed that when I saw her outfit, consisting of a white Peter Pan collared blouse and full pastel cotton skirt with frou frou crinoline! To remedy the situation, I loaned her my pale pink lipstick. Shortly afterwards, a dashing young man asked her to dance. Months later she returned to Victoria where her grandmother asked her about her trip to Europe. By then, travelling had taken second place. The life memory for her that summer was the dance at the Leaside Library. ■
Leaside Life, March 2014
A few issues ago, Lorna Krawchuk reminisced about rain water running down the basement staircase of the old Leaside Library and flooding the community room. The mention of that room stirred a pleasant memory in me of weekly dances held there in the late ‘50s, and it had a soundtrack, Conway Twitty snarling It’s Only Make Believe. When we opened the community room doors they revealed a wide staircase, visible from many directions, leading down to the white-tiled dance floor. Cool guys used this to make dramatic entrances. In the movie Peggy Sue Got Married, Nicholas Cage descends a similar staircase to the high school reunion dance with a smooth saunter of empty arrogance that I recognized immediately. The steady couples often dressed alike, wearing ensembles of red v-neck sweaters over white shirts with the collars up. Males wore black slacks; females, straight skirts (today’s pencil skirts) and white shoes. They only danced with each other, of course, while the rest of us stood with studied nonchalance praying
LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:06 AM Page 20
DEBATE 20
Leaside Life, March 2014
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KETTEL vs. ASHWORTH
‘It is obvious that planners failed to abide by all conditions of... policy’ By GEOFF KETTEL
Saving old Leaside Unlike my colleague Will Ashworth, I do not think that Bayview Ave. business owners are primarily to blame for the recent closing of several stores on their street. Rather, they are victims of the over-development of retail centres on Laird Dr. These centres emerged as a direct consequence of the city’s planning policy to allow these former industrial lands to be converted into commercial areas. Notably, the official plan allows for large-scale retail on the edges of employment areas, but only “if sufficient transportation capacity is available to accommodate the extra traffic generated by the development and the economic health of nearby shopping districts is not adversely affected.” By now it is obvious that planners failed to abide by all the conditions of this policy. As a result, we now have increased traffic congestion on Laird Dr. and an ailing business environment on Bayview Ave. This is merely the big picture, however. On a daily basis, it is the parking situation that most works against Bayview. Acres of free parking are available in the shopping centres on Laird set against paying an arm and a leg for on-street parking for Bayview businesses. This is especially vexing if you need to
feed the meter in the event that your time expires. Of course you can always take your chances of finding a spot further away along residential streets, but who has the time? And where is the bike parking on Bayview? Biking to shop on the street is eminently doable, but there’s nowhere to park. Almost all bike parking on the east side disappeared when the sidewalk was repaved last summer. What about the argument that Bayview is about boutique shopping and is competing in a different market than the big box stores? This is true to a degree, but should the street forgo the commodity shops and become boutique only? In my view, Bayview is both a stimulating place to go and a neighbourhood shopping street. The boutique stores and higher end restaurants offer unique treats, but the commodity stores create a European experience for people who like to shop daily. Will thinks that Bayview is bland. I disagree. How much more bland is a big box store? Bayview is about owner-operators, not corporate behemoths, about entrepreneurs and artisans that create things with their own hands, their own minds, not just stock shelves. It is about relationships, built over time. The street is a unique cul-
tural space that needs to be preserved. Admittedly, another Bayview challenge is the high rents. Will landlords realize that they can create more revenue from reasonable rents that keep store fronts filled than unaffordable high rents that drive out tenants? At least one landlord has agreed to lower the rent just to enable a tenant to stay on. It’s an example of what can happen when there is some communication and a longer term perspective. So, what is my prescription for the future? Firstly, Bayview needs to renounce its victimhood, seize the collective power that comes from working together, and form a Business Improvement Area. The Bits and Bites on Bayview event last summer gave us a literal and figurative taste of what a BIA can achieve. Secondly, improve parking on Bayview, and not just for cars. There is a need for a parking facility near Eglinton; maybe the BIA could negotiate an arrangement for public parking in private office lots. Most importantly, let’s eliminate the unfairness of free parking at big box stores. There should be a parking tax for all cars parking regardless of public or private space.■
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DEBATE 21
By WILL ASHWORTH
The business of Leaside Bayview’s problems are of its own making. In fact, it’s a lot like an alcoholic. Until it admits it has a problem, stores will continue to close, perhaps in record numbers. While it’s convenient to blame First Capital Realty, SmartCentres and all the other real estate people looking to develop the outskirts of the Leaside industrial area, honest reflection will show that blame lies within. The scuttlebutt on the street is that in addition to the stores closed there are a number of shops currently open that are suffering like they’ve never suffered before. Geoff Kettel would like you to believe there are external factors at work here, including a lack of parking, and high rents. If this is true, how do you explain the tremendous success of both Mom’s to be… and More, and Hollywood Gelato, two of the more popular stops along Bayview? As I see it, there are several reasons for the problems Bayview faces, and none has anything to do with Laird development. To start, there are simply too many shops offering the same products to a population that can’t or won’t sustain them. When Hollywood Gelato opened in 2001 it brought to the
neighborhood something new and exciting for kids and adults alike. Thirteen years later, business continues to be brisk. In 2010, The Mad Italian jumped into the gelato fray followed by Yogurty’s (Sunnybrook Plaza) in 2011 and Yeh! in 2012. All the while Baskin-Robbins sold ice cream from its store at Millwood. Five businesses selling a warmweather product in a cold-weather climate. Something had to give. Yeh! and The Mad Italian (original owner Allesandro Settimi sold in August 2011) paid the ultimate price, closing within three months of each other. Parking has been a problem along the street for years. But in the end, customers want to be wowed. If you do that, I guarantee they’ll beat a path to Bayview. With a handful of exceptions there’s little on the street that stands out as retail excellence. Mediocre is a more apt description. Ultimately, it seems odd that Leaside, a neighbourhood suffering under the weight of Laird development and crying out for a sense of direction as Geoff contends, is one of the few historical Toronto neighbourhoods without a Business Improvement Area. Currently, Toronto has the
largest number of BIAs in North America, creating 35 in the last 12 years alone. Lawrence Park, Forest Hill, Rosedale and the Beach have them, too. Store owners in these communities have wisely concluded that their businesses are stronger operating collectively rather than as a bunch of independent entities with no master plan or sense of cohesiveness. Those opposed to the formation of a BIA see it as another tax grab by the city using the BIA levy to fund street beautification projects that otherwise would have been undertaken by the city itself. However, it’s hard to argue with the fundraising capacity of BIAs. Bayview could use some of the funds to improve the quality of snow removal on the street. Walk Bayview shortly after any kind of snowfall and it’s a hodge podge of shovelled and unshovelled sidewalks. A simple thing like clearing the snow and Bayview gets it wrong. You wouldn’t shop at Don Mills or Leaside Village if they didn’t shovel the sidewalks. In my opinion a BIA would force the street to look at itself as a single entity where tenant mix is vital to its future. You can’t get from point A to point B without a map. A BIA gives you that map. ■
Leaside Life, March 2014
‘Unless (Bayview) admits it has a problem, stores will continue to close’
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L vs. ASHWORTH
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From valu-mart to an orphanage in Tegucigalpa Leaside Life, March 2014
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By BETH PARKER Darryl Bunt was born, raised, lives and works in Leaside. His family home on Donegall Dr. is the same house that his grandparents lived in for 30 years. But this 27-year-old will leave behind what he describes as the “comfortable and safe community” of Leaside this spring to travel with a service team to Tegucigalpa, Honduras where he’ll work for a week as a volunteer at an orphanage for abandoned children. “A typical day,” says Bunt, “includes… doing manual labour, perhaps digging a trench or painting a building.” He points out that they don’t have big equipment there, like here, and “digging a trench means using shovels”, he says. A highlight every day is playing games with the kids, like soccer, and just being their friends. “When we’re with the children,” Bunt says, “we tell them that there is a community outside Honduras that cares about them too, and that’s why we are there.” Here in Leaside he works at valu-
MEET YOUR NEIGHBOUR
mart on Bayview, the same store where he landed his first part time job at 15. Is this your first time in Tegucigalpa? “No. The first time I went with my parents and two brothers in 2012.” How did your first visit change your perspective on the world? “I was struck by the lifestyle compared to Canada. The children have
nothing compared to what we have here. When we got back, we all felt different. My twin brothers stopped the discussion over having their own bedroom, and I refused to leave uneaten food on my plate.” What does the experience teach you? “The children may not own anything but they play together and have fun. They also respect each other and share what they have.” What inspired you to return this year? “One little girl came from a family where the father had abandoned the mother and in order to feed her child, the mother was forced into prostitution. When the mother was arrested and sent to prison, the little girl had to live there with the mother as well, where she spent two years before coming to the orphanage. That kind of experience really touches you strongly.” And what do you like about Leaside? “It’s a great place to live and it feels safe as you can walk down the street without having to look over your shoulder and worry.” Anything you’d change? Not a thing! I really appreciate what we have here.” ■
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Brian Domelle, the Canadian Tire franchisee at 825 Eglinton East, retired Feb. 12 after 37 years as a dealer, the last 17 in the Leaside Centre at Laird and Eglinton. Taking over from Domelle is Stephen Grand, currently the Canadian Tire dealer for its store at Sheppard and McCowan in Scarborough. Many factors weighed into Domelle’s decision including age (66), the fire that destroyed its garden centre in September 2012, the Walmart rumoured to be opening in SmartCentre’s new development, the opportunity to do something different and the impending LRT construction. Individually none of these factors made up his mind but when taken collectively they were enough to send him off into retirement. Prepare yourselves. There are signs of construction beginning on the Eglinton LRT. The first job will be the widening of Eglinton just east of Brentcliffe to accommodate where the tunnel will surface. Prep work includes relocating hydro poles, and generally getting “stuff” out of the way. A Metrolinx information centre for the community is being set up at Sunnybrook Plaza, to keep everyone up-todate and stay on top of concerns.
Liz Ross and Pauline Crespillo expanded into restoration when they moved to Leaside’s business park eight years ago. Their work included carousel animals and rocking horses. 23 “We’ll miss you,” they tell us, “You’re the ones who have given us so much: great challenges, novel experiences, great fun, and most especially, great friendships.” Congratulations to long-time Leaside resident Carrie Tse, who recently launched her studio Bamboo Bay at Millwood Rd. and Bayview. The centre provides art and craft classes for children ages 2-12 as well as piano lessons. Carrie and her three sisters grew up in North Leaside and attended the schools in the area. Her older sister is known by many as a local piano teacher and Tse’s parents owned the local restaurant, China Feast. “I was full steam ahead with my closing, when my landlord approached me,” says Bayview’s Whatever Lola Wants owner Rhonda Fruitman. Fruitman was able to renegotiate a short-term lease and hopes to stay in the neighbourhood. “ I have put everything I have both financially and emotionally into my shop,” she adds. It’s worth a visit for the adorable bulldog, Olive, and the new (blind) pug named Tucker. ■
Leaside Life, March 2014
In our Hood
Meanwhile, construction has started on the new Whole Foods store on Bayview at Broadway. There will be 50,000 square feet of space next door to Mount Hope Cemetery, is the former location of Brennan’s motor car dealership. This will be the third Whole Foods Market in Toronto and is slated to open early next year. SmartCentre North expects to begin construction at its Wicksteed site sometime this fall with stores opening in late 2015, the company says. It says so far it does not have any confirmed tenants. The post office is back at Sunnybrook Plaza. It was gone last year when Wrap-It-Up left and has now resurfaced in the Rexall drug store. Open every day at 9, closed at 9 except 6 on Saturday and 5 on Sunday, Alexa and Christian Rocca, children of realtor Patrick Rocca, are getting involved for the second year collecting new or gently used dresses, suits, shoes and accessories for graduating students in Thorncliffe Park. Until April 4 you ca drop them off at Bosley Real Estate, 290 Merton, or arrange for pickup, alexr@bss.on.ca/. Leaside said goodbye to a few merchants this spring. Nitty Gritty custom furniture is closing after 38 years in business. Owners Dave and
LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:06 AM Page 24
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Leaside Life, March 2014
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Leaside Life welcomes Patricia Phenix as editor. She was born and raised in Leaside and is the author of three published books: Olga Romanov: Russia’s Last Grand Duchess, Penguin Books Canada, 1999 (a national bestseller); Eatonians: The Story of the Family Behind the Family, McClelland & Stewart, 2002; and Private Demons: The Tragic Personal Life of John A. Macdonald, McClelland & Stewart, 2006. She has worked extensively as a writer and editor, and has had articles published in such publications as The Globe and Mail, the Ottawa Citizen, Flare, and The Dorchester Review. Her experience includes acting as the national publications manager of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada. Most recently Phenix completed a six-year term as a citizenship judge with the Ministry of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. ■
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The corner of Laird and Millwood during the 1985 mud slide.
How soon we’ve forgotten the big mud slide Last December we suffered through a horrific ice storm followed by a deep freeze. Almost everyone was without power and heat for an extended period of time. It was an experience we are not likely to forget and yet how many of us can remember the other severe ice storms of 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1968? That’s not really surprising if you weren’t born then. But it is surprising just how few long time Leaside residents remember much if anything about the time our telephone service was cut off in 1985. Just before Christmas on Sunday, Dec. 8 that year, two lanes of pavement on Millwood Rd. just south of the railway overpass across from the Ontario Hydro Transformer Station together with 100 tons of mud slid into the Don Valley ripping out a utility tunnel and eight telephone exchange cables, cutting off service to about 15,000 Leasiders with 421, 422, 424, 425 and 429 telephone exchanges. Because of the mud slide, traffic on Millwood had to be diverted from Laird to Wicksteed via Beth Nealson Dr. and Thorncliffe to Overlea. In the days before cellular phones everyone with one of those telephone exchanges was cut off from communicating with the rest of the world unless they walked, drove their car or took a bus to make a phone call. Bell Telephone set up 10 free telephones in a van parked on the Sunnybrook Plaza and 10 more at the Leaside Memorial Community Gar-
Alan Redway Former East York mayor and federal cabinet minister
dens parking lot. One man who had walked a long distance from his home to reach one of these phones became livid with himself when he discovered that he had left the telephone number he intended to call back at his house. Another had to walk back and forth from his home several times because he kept getting busy signals. Two residents of Killdeer Cres. drove to their church located just west of Yonge St. to make their telephone calls. Bell set up a portable telephone in the house of an 80-year-old lady on Laird Dr. after learning she suffered from a severe heart condition. Fearing for the safety of other residents who had no way to communicate in case of an emergency, East York moved additional fire trucks to the Leaside station on McRae, which then together with police cars from 53 Division, patrolled our Leaside streets as they never had before nor since. But the telephone outage didn’t just affect Leaside residents, it impacted on Leaside businesses and industries as well. Long time Leaside resident, the late Herb McGroarty who had purchased the former Leaside town hall
at McRae and Randolph from the Borough of East York when it was sold as surplus to the needs of the municipality, had been fortunate enough to lease the building to the Bank of Montreal for its computer centre. When the phone lines went down so did the Bank of Montreal’s computer systems. As you can imagine it wasn’t long after this that the bank moved out leaving McGroarty with an empty building. Why did this happen? A number of possible explanations were given at the time. Some said it was the great amount of rain that had fallen shortly before the outage occurred. Others felt it was due to the road construction on Millwood just before the mud slide. Still others thought that it was caused by the vibrations from the trains travelling over the nearby railway overpass despite the fact that trains had been travelling on those same tracks for about 100 years prior to the mud slide. The real reason was an undetected water main leak that had washed away the road bed turning the earth under it into a sea of mud and finally causing the whole kit and caboodle to slide into the valley. The good news, however, was that telephone service was restored more promptly than anticipated. Better yet, memories soon faded. The same will occur with our recent ice storm and our kids born after 2013 will never even know it happened unless you tell them. ■
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A challenge to debate Leaside development Leaside Life, March 2014
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28 Will Ashworth has it all wrong. To start with Yonge and Eglinton, there are more than 500 floors of condos in the process. The Yonge subway is beyond capacity. There isn’t space on local streets or in local schools. The downtown relief line is at least 15 years off and before that an LRT will dump more riders on the Yonge line. It makes one wonder what it is our planners are doing that actually involves planning. Commuters will find a way, short of turn restrictions that will diminish the access of Leasiders to their own homes, to shortcut on Leaside streets not only during LRT construction, but also after the planners have put in the bicycle lanes recommended in the Eglinton Connects report. The Big Move, at Section 1.4, cites climate change, at 1.3 it cites gridlock. But there is nothing in the Big Move to estimate the tonnage of emissions to be poured into the environment because the ideological planners are hell-bent to build a midtown LRT without making suburban transit improvements preparatory to Eglinton. Isn’t that what planners are supposed to do? Prevent and not create traffic jams? John Sewell estimated it would take a 7.5 percent property tax increase to maintain service levels with the new density. Ashworth’s assertion that Leaside is underpopulated ignores the reality that sprawl continues because developers market the idyllic lifestyle of sprawl. If we hope to compete with those who would build exclusive housing on farmland we must maintain low densities in our most desirable neighbourhoods. The Places to Grow Act defines its purpose, at Section 1(6): “To promote a rational and balanced approach to decisions about growth that builds on community priorities, strengths, and opportunities and makes efficient use of infrastructure.” What is there in any of the development between Duplex and Brentcliffe that meets this standard? When Leaside Life published excerpts of the SmartCentre’s Impact Study, the excerpts included: “As the very short distances would not be routlinely practical, the future proportion of pedestrian trips is considered to be understated… trip generation data clearly demonstrates that shopping centre trip rates do not increase in direct proportion to the increase in gross leasable areas. This is the synergy effect based on a two-way trip
LETTERS leasidelife@gmail.com Letters may be edited for length.
Bob Murphy may not live in Leaside but if home is where the heart is Bob's home is definitely right here. It has been that way since he played baseball years ago at Talbot Park. While playing with Leaside kids at Talbot he came to understand and to share our feelings about this community and our desire to preserve its physical character. Bob Murphy still understands and shares those values with us. Alan Redway McRae Dr. having more than one purpose with in a large retail commercial development….” In their Jabberwocky way, they said a person would walk to the Home Depot to carry home his lumber, his bottles of wine and his frozen turkey. Given that they’ve tried to make the same argument about the Costco site one might ask what is it about “big box” these planners do not understand? Will the LRT have roofracks? The planners have a different opinion about transit and the nature and quality of “intensification”. An LRT is local, a subway is regional. It does not rely upon a mass of density along the route. It casts a wide
web of surface feeder routes to serve a wide area. If the Bloor-Danforth line were extended to Sheppard, the Sheppard East station would become the terminus for dozens of surface routes in north Scarborough and Markham. Many people who today take the long, crowded, daily bus ride to Finch station will instead go to Sheppard East Station. This is the closest many of us will get to seeing a “relief line” in our lifetimes. The subway model is more cost effective than the LRT model because we don’t have to build as many of them. If we hope to achieve a rational, balanced city and reduce gridlock and emissions we need to put the jobs closer to where the commuters live, reducing the length of the daily commute. Either build suburban transit and shift the focus of densification to the suburbs or build more road space. We need to come to grips with the reality the suburbs are so vast we will not change them without putting all our planning resources to the task of retroplanning them so they are not as dependent on the car. And so the only way we will reduce emissions and gridlock is by not building developments that will bring more commuter traffic here. The planners believe bicycle lanes will save the planet when, in many cases, they will exacerbate the conditions causing gridlock. If Will Ashworth or Kathleen Wynne or anyone wants to debate me on this, bring it on. Bob Murphy Eglinton East
ED. NOTE: Leaside Life will try to organize a public debate in May. Let us know if you are interested. leasidelife@gmail.com
A solid wall of seven-storey apartment buildings I suspect that the proposed office residential development at 939 Eglinton on the south-west corner of Brentcliffe is only the beginning. The Province of Ontario’s Places to Grow Act, aimed at preserving farm land by preventing urban sprawl, calls for increased residential densities in cities including Toronto. The city of Toronto planners have implemented the province’s marching orders with an Of-
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Traffic real reason for opposing big developments I have a problem accepting Will Ashworth’s support of “that big Diamond proposal” and the rationale he offers, related to Bennington Heights and Leaside being underpopulated by approximately 5,000 people per square kilometre compared to 8,000 in the rest of the ward, and 4,400 for the rest of the city. The rest of the ward has a lot of high-rises, and our area is primarily single dwelling residential. The Don Valley also runs through it. That’s why people enjoy living here. Leaside also represents a small portion of Ward 26. Traffic is the real reason for opposing high- rise and big box development within the area. More people equal more cars. Once the Diamond building is done, developers will be eyeing the low rise apartments on Eglinton at Brentcliffe with a view to adding many more floors to them. Our traffic problem comes from people living far north of Toronto and far east of Toronto who drive to work and play in downtown Toronto. Within our small area of Ward 26 we have no north/south streets running directly downtown below Eglinton. This means that most of the Eglinton east/west traffic is therefore diverted through the south Leaside neighbourhood over to Bayview Ave. Because of this, Leaside faces real traffic challenges even without additional new development. I don’t think that Will Ashworth is thinking about traffic. He is thinking more about the existing business development and
City never sought outside planner for the OMB I have read the article "City couldn't find planner for 2 Laird fray" in your January issue. The article indicates, correctly, that city council has voted to reject the staff report concerning this application, and the city will oppose the application at the OMB. The article meanders into less accurate territory, however, where it goes on to indicate that council "asked for an outside planner to be retained to handle the matter for the city". The clear thesis of the article is summed up in the subsequent comment that the city has "not been able to secure a planner to
take this on," and as a result the LPOA decided to do so. A fair reading of the article leaves one wondering if the city somehow abandoned the file. The city will be rep- 29 resented at the OMB by an experienced municipal law solicitor working in close collaboration with me, as was always contemplated. At no time was an outside planner expected to "handle the matter," on behalf of the city, and the city never sought a planner for that purpose. At last check, neither the city nor the LPOA had expressed an intention to be represented at the OMB by a planner. I have been working with the LPOA on this difficult matter since it first raised its head, and I welcome the LPOA's continued engagement in it. I am confident that, together, we can work to achieve the best result possible for our community. John Parker Toronto City Councillor - Ward 26
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having people in the immediate area to support it. As a business owner, I would be more concerned about people not wanting to go into the area because of traffic congestion and lack of parking spots. It is not unreasonable to challenge condo development within our area and to limit the size. While I agree that traffic is a problem all over, protecting residential pockets within the older parts of our city and attempting to maintain a semblance of quality of life and community is worth it. A good example of this is to drive south of St. Clair on Yonge St. where there are a number of streets which prohibit direct east/west traffic from between the two main north/south arteries of Avenue Rd. and Yonge St. Great residential areas that literally cater to the residents who live there in terms of not allowing throughway traffic. It does, however, mean that St. Clair Ave., which also brings traffic into both Bennington Heights and Leaside, is the main east-west connection between Yonge and Avenue Rd. north of Bloor St. Even Rosedale Valley Rd. brings traffic through Leaside. At this point there is a valid reason to reopen the Redway Rd. discussion so that the Laird traffic and the Overlea traffic could travel downtown via Redway to the Bayview Extension through a part of the valley where there is no residential development. That’s one way of alleviating traffic flow through Leaside. My comments are based on living here for 40 years and literally watching the number of cars that pass our home increase every day. It used to be only at rush hours. It is now a constant flow of cars. Bev Edgar Southvale Dr.
Leaside Life, March 2014
ficial Plan that calls for increased residential densities on main streets such as Eglinton. The construction of the rapid transit system now taking place will only accelerate the approval of developments such as 939 Eglinton. As Mr. Ashworth’s article in the February issue of Leaside Life points out, not only the Eglinton intersections at Yonge and Mt. Pleasant but also at Bayview and Laird are targets for similar developments. Then if the Official Plan is taken to the extreme we could see approvals for a solid line of seven-storey or more apartment buildings on both sides of Eglinton from Yonge to Wilket Creek Park.It’s unlikely that either the city or the OMB will stop approving this type of redevelopment unless the province changes their marching orders. Alan Redway, McRae Dr.
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PARKER:
What you need to know to fight big development By ALLAN WILLIAMS Councillor John Parker knows he took some heat for not simply opposing the SmartCentre North development proposal, as some Leaside residents wanted him to do. And he knows others might have handled the issue differently. “Some councillors paint every developer as evil and pledge to fight them every step of the way. That may be the best way to get the crowd behind you,” he says, “but it’s not how you get the best result.” The proof, Parker suggests, is in the record produced at the Ontario Municipal Board. “The reason so many developers are successful at the OMB is because their application is initially dealt with on a political basis and that generates a result that doesn’t stand up under scrutiny. The room for political decision-making is limited to aspects that are not prescribed in the Official Plan. “Zoning is subordinate to the Official Plan which, in turn, has to follow the Planning Act. The OMB also has to adhere to the Planning Act.” So, instead, Parker says, the approach that yields the best results for Leaside, and for any other neighbourhood, when faced with a controversial development proposal, is to understand realistically what is and isn’t permissible under the Official Plan, to insist on the most thorough and rigorous possible application of the design review process, including traffic studies and economic impact studies, and to ensure that every step throughout the process is conducted in an open and transparent manner. Toronto’s Official Plan was adopted in 2002 and went into effect in 2006 but most zoning by-laws were written well before it went into
ALLAN WILLIAMS
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effect. For example, the site of the SmartCentre North proposal is zoned industrial. But the new Official Plan talks instead about employment areas and says that large-scale retail developments are permissible on the edges of these employment areas provided that the impact on traffic and on the surrounding employment areas is deemed acceptable. Because the SmartCentre North proposal site has frontage on Laird it qualifies for this circumstance under the terms of the Official Plan. In other words, the proposed use is allowed under the Official Plan so simply opposing it wholesale is not going to be effective. “The number of lawn signs opposed to a project is not one of the tests under the Official Plan as to whether a project is permissible or not,” said Parker. Instead Parker says he focused his efforts on the design review process aiming to achieve the best possible end result for Leaside. “The city says to the applicant, ‘We need a traffic study and you have to pay for it.’ Then the city pokes holes in it. “The city required six revisions to the traffic study. This was the most thoroughly examined and reviewed traffic study ever to come before North York Transportation Services because I told them how important it was that we get this right.” When it came to the economic impact study, Parker insisted that it be as rigorous as the traffic study and that it be peer-reviewed because, he says, “the city has no expertise in this area”. A Design Review Panel (DRP) is selected by the city and made up of an architect, engineer, planner and landscape architect, all with expertise in urban planning and construction.
The same process was applied to the Leaside Village proposal four years ago. “The DRP trashed the first version of the Longo’s proposal,” Parker recalls. “They insisted on many changes, and made it so much better in the end, making the railway building much more prominent. The DRP succeeded beyond my wildest dreams in producing the result I was hoping for on the Longo’s site.” One of Parker’s key design objectives with this new development was that it not have a big parking lot between the street and the retail space. as is the case both at Canadian Tire and at SmartCentre South. “I pointed to SmartCentre South and said, ‘I will not tolerate another abomination like that!’ and the developers agreed.” They retained architect Don Schmidt, of Diamond Schmidt Architects (his partner is the famed Jack Diamond), and when the plans eventually went before the Design Review Panel they were enthusiastically endorsed the first time. And finally, Parker says, transparency is essential. “There can be no secret, back-room deals. All the studies, design proposals and related information have been posted on the city website so that anyone who wants to can see them. And there were three separate opportunities for all concerned to meet with the planning people and review the reports. “Some people wanted to play poker with the whole thing. I didn’t think that was in the best interest of the community. I directed my efforts at getting the best architect, the best design, the best ancillary features and the smallest footprint that we could hope for using the tools available to us.” Time will tell how successful this approach has been. ■
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ANN BROWN
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The Leaside Lancerettes 1974-75: Back row: Lisa Ritchie, Anne McGrath, Lynn Gilchrist. Middle row: Brian McGroarty, Christina Harron, Wendy Tunnicliffe, Megan Paul, Lynn Daly, Dave Yarlett. Front row: Barbara Edwards, Nancy Mallabon, Ann Brown, Janice Christensen, Betty Ann Armstrong, Shirley Sheppard. By LORNA KRAWCHUK The uniform is blue and white, the number on the back of the jersey is 10, but the player on the women’s hockey team obviously isn’t George Armstrong, one-time captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. There is a relationship though. Betty Ann Armstrong is George’s daughter and the Leaside resident loves hockey as much as her dad and her three brothers, even though she had a harder time getting to play. Her father didn’t push his three sons into hockey, but didn’t object. With his daughter, however, he didn’t feel at first that hockey was a woman’s sport. She was envious when Brian, Fred and Lorne played for the Leaside Kings. But there was nothing for girls at that time. Her brothers would let her join them playing ball hockey in the parking lot of St. Cuthbert’s Church late into the evening under the lights there. Once winter ice was put in at Trace Manes, the boys would play shinny on the hockey pad there and sometimes let her join them, but she had to use their hand-me-down skates. She never liked figure skates, because they were narrower and her feet got cold, and she was always tripping on the picks. Finally, in 1974, her hockey-loving friend Nancy Mallabon, who lived on Randolph Rd., came to the rescue. She asked Dave Yarlett, VP of Leaside Hockey Association, to start girls hockey at Leaside arena.
#10 and women’s hockey in Leaside
Betty Ann Armstrong
“Dave said to Nancy he could get one hour of ice time on Sunday afternoon,” said Armsrong, “and it’s up to her to round up players, and Nancy did. “That first Sunday Dave said there weren’t enough girls and they all had to have proper skates and equipment. Some girls had figure skates and no equipment. “Nancy asked for another chance and that’s when more girls came out the following Sunday with the proper equipment. We had enough for two teams (Lancerettes and Blazerettes). We played each other for the rest of the year. “Dave also said he had to fight to let the girls play as the girls had to play under MTHL rules because the ice time was sanctioned by the MTHL at the time.” If you look on the website for the Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association, you’ll see a photo of one of the two first teams, and there in the front row is Betty Ann Armstrong. Most of the girls are wearing equipment they had scrounged from boyfriends or brothers, and some were actually playing hockey in figure skates. She recalls that when her father went to see his kids play, he was a quiet observer and never yelled. If you asked him for advice or help, he’d give it, but you had to ask, and he wouldn’t push it on you. He’s been quietly proud of all of their accomplishments, she says. Left to her own devices, she would HOCKEY, Page 37
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A fear of townhouse creep The William Lea Room was wellfilled and everyone was well-behaved. Quite a different atmosphere on Jan. 27 compared with the Jan. 8 public meeting about the proposed development for 220 McRae and 327-329 Sutherland Dr. that was cancelled amid allegations that the proposal had changed and was not the one described in the flyer. This time audience comments were well-tempered but firm – while townhouses were allowed, the concern was that these did not look like townhouses – rather the eight-unit block looked more like a four-storey apartment building. And approving this project would lead to “townhouse creep” along McRae. Parking is a perennial concern. Here there was proposed only one space per townhouse, plus one visitor space for all eight units. The semi-detached houses proposed for Sutherland were massive and did not fit the building setback or the roof line of existing homes on Sutherland. In summary, concerns were expressed over excessive massing, height, density and inappropriate built form. Peter Higgins, the development’s architect, got perhaps the largest reaction from the audience when he suggested that the zoning by-law needed to be amended because it was from the 1960s and therefore was outdated. It was pointed out by a resident that in fact the by-law was updated and re-approved by city council as recently as in 2013. The Leaside Property Owners’ Association, in a Feb. 4 letter to Councillor John Parker and Guy Matthew, the city’s planner (full disclosure, yours truly drafted the letter), recommended that the city demand that the proposed development be substantially redesigned and downsized, and be brought into
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conformity with the Leaside Residential Character Preservation Guidelines, and with city planning guidelines for townhouses. The letter also noted that any plans for this site need to take into account the historical context of the site in the heart of the Town of Leaside. McRae Dr. was designed in 1912 by Frederick Todd, the town’s planner, as a curving cross-street linking the residential and industrial parts of the planned town. The site is diagonally across the road from the Red Mulberry health store, which was originally Perrem and Knight, the first grocery store in Leaside (322 Sutherland Dr.). The former Leaside Town Hall (165 McRae) is diagonally across the road in the other direction. 322 Sutherland and 165 McRae set the tone for the area with the buildings set well back from the street and large treed boulevards in front. Readers who wish to learn more about the proposal can go to the North York section of the City Planning web site. Comments should be directed to Guy Matthew at 416 395-7102, or gmatthe2@toronto.ca. There is no clue currently as to what will be the reaction of the developer (or the city) to the residents’ concerns. __ Not really a surprise but an appeal has been made to the Ontario Municipal Board of the Committee of Adjustment’s rejection of the severance of the property at 262 Bessborough into three lots, and the minor variances required for proposed development of the lots created. The hearing dates have been set to start Monday, May 12 for three days. The Thomas G. Elgie House is the oldest surviving house in Leaside and a designated heritage home. The plan rejected by the Committee of Adjustment on Jan. 8 involved demolishing the later additions to the original house, moving the original structure forward to enable the severance of two new lots, and the construction of new houses on either side. This runs counter to the heritage designation, which states that the heritage attributes include: “the specific location, setback and orientation of the building on the west side of Bessborough Dr., north of Parkhurst, where the east side elevation of the house faces the street and is viewed across a landscaped setting from Bessborough.” ■
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Leaside Life, March 2014
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Short term pain for long term gain. That’s what we face as construction for the Eglinton LRT reaches Leaside. While some of the pain will last only for brief periods, there will still be lengthy disruptions. For the next few years LRT tunnel-boring and station construction will be a constant presence. We will all be affected one way or another, whether we live close to the route or not. The really big issue for residents will be traffic diverting away from Eglinton and onto our residential streets. One encouraging bit of news is that as much as 45 percent of Eglinton’s traffic is what is called “extraneous,” able to use other arterial east-west routes between their origins and destinations. This is traffic that, once drivers discover the new congestion problems along Eglinton, at least have the option and ability to divert completely away from our latitude. Nevertheless, we can expect problems, both adjacent and parallel to Eglinton, and on other Leaside streets. This is why the LPOA traffic committee will be setting up monthly meetings with Metrolinx and city transportation to report and address problems promptly as they arise, and try to prevent others arising. This is where you can help: we are working on ways of collecting your observations so that we can seek improvements in a timely way. Watch this space for more news on this front. The LPOA traffic committee met with representatives of Metrolinx, the provincial agency responsible for building the LRT, and city transportation at the end of January. We were joined by Trae Zammit, of the Bayview Business Improvement Area to-be, and Andy Elder, of Grilltime on Laird. We are concerned about the construction’s impacts on local shop
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After four years, Brian Athey has stepped down as president of LPOA. We and all Leasiders owe him many thanks for his hard work and dedication, and are very glad that he remains on our board. At our February meeting Geoff Kettel and I were elected as co-presidents. Roger Steer is our new vicepresident, while Agnes Vermes and Andrea Villiers retain their positions as treasurer and corresponding secretary. We meet on the first Wednesday of every month at 7:30 p.m. in the Trace Manes building south of Leaside Library. Our meetings are open and we welcome attendees. ■
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Leaside Life, March 2014
ping and businesses, and we’re proposing that parking restrictions and enforcement be relaxed on northsouth streets, especially along Bayview and Laird, during the construction period. We will be discussing this in more detail at our next meeting. During the years of construction, there will be some temporary relocation of utilities (hydro, gas, water mains and sewers, telephone and cable). We were assured that residents and businesses will be given advance notice of any shutdowns and length of interruption. We asked about the possibility of relocating some of these services underground (given our still vivid memories of this winter’s ice storm) but this is not in their current plans. Individual arrangements still have to be worked out regarding access to affected private driveways and parking during construction, especially along Eglinton. By the time you are reading this, preparatory work probably will have begun at the tunnel’s portal on Eglinton just east of Brentcliffe. Digging underground will be from east to west, with headwalls built, and provisions for emergency exits between stations. You will also notice some activity at the Bayview/Eglinton intersection, although the major impact there will likely be a year or so later, as station building begins. Each station will have two entrances. The main entrance for Bayview will be at the south-east corner, where McDonald’s is now. The main entrance for the Laird station will be on the southwest corner, replacing the small commercial plaza. There aren’t yet proposals or designs for aboveground building atop each station. Each will be considered and tendered separately. All in all, LPOA will be keeping involved to keep you abreast of developments. ___
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Leaside Life, March 2014
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John Parker
Ba Bayview yview & Fleming F le m in g 1601 B Bayview ayview Ave Ave Tor Toronto onto O ON NM M4G 4G 3B5 3B 5 416-489-1873 416 489 1873
Councillor, Toronto Ward 26 Don Valley West
New plans for Talbot field being sought
BRIAN MOK
COME IN FOR YOUR FREE FLU SHOT.
It was a treat to read the comments of my friend and neighbour Michael Stevenson in last month's Leaside Life. They reflected his unsurpassed passion for Howard Talbot Park and his determination to keep the pressure on me to implement effective measures to improve the condition of its playing fields. I have written on this matter myself in past issues. I have discussed the condition of the fields at length with Michael - most often in chance encounters on the street - and have been part of at least one formal community meeting involving parks staff and him at which needs, objectives, and strategies were canvassed. The challenges faced by Talbot Park's playing fields are many, most notably the high degree of use that our community makes of them and the presence of a high water table lying just below the surface. The football field and track, moreover, are both undersized – a by-product of the tight space in which they are situated. Thoughts of major remedial work on the playing fields of Talbot Park were shelved while we waited for Metrolinx to let us know if it would require the space as a staging area for its Eglinton Crosstown. Metrolinx having confirmed that its plans will not interfere with Talbot Park, I have directed the 2014 capital plan to include a review of options for reconstructing the football field and/or track in standard dimensions and to scope out steps aimed at addressing the challenges faced by the various playing surfaces. This may include negotiations with the school board leading to a revised management agreement for the football field and track. I have also assured Michael that I will arrange for the two of us to meet with the park superintendant so that he can deliver his advice on matters concerning the fields to the person in charge. It is possible that this meeting will have taken place before this column is published. â–
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From Page 31
played hockey every day, she says. Instead, she walks back and forth to work each day from home on St. Cuthbert’s Rd. to Crescent School off Bayview north of Lawrence, and runs often for fitness and pleasure. She’s done the 60 km Breast Cancer walk 10 times, as well as the 200 km bike ride.
Her team now is the Icebags, playing at the Rinx centre in west Toronto. When I asked if they practiced, she said no, they’re “beyond practising,” but a family connection can soften that stance. They have had the odd coaching session with her niece, Kalley, who plays for Harvard University. Finally, she has an interesting memory about those early playing
days: When George Armstrong was coaching the Toronto Marlboros in the Memorial Cup in the 1970s, Gordie Howe’s sons were on his 37 team. So, in the stands for the game were Gordie Howe and the Armstrong family, including son Lorne who was of an age to be colouring while he watched the game. Someone suggested that Gordie might sign Lorne’s colouring book, which he did. Now, that’s a souvenir. ■
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But she still gets her hockey time in.
Leaside Life, March 2014
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LeasideLife issue 26 final Feb_LeasideLifev1 14-02-20 10:08 AM Page 38
Why we don't take sides on the isssues facing us Leaside Life, March 2014
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In the two years that our paper has been in publication, we have received many letters in response to our writers’ and columnists’ articles. These include critiques on development issues affecting both Leaside and Bennington Heights, such as the construction of the LRT, condomium buildings, and the creation of large shopping centres. We’ve been accused of not taking stands on issues, most notably on the proposed development for Brentcliffe and Eglinton. Your feedback has made me think it would be a good idea to talk a bit about what we think we’re doing with this monthly paper. Our goal each month is to bring you a lively paper for, about, and by Leasiders. From the beginning, we’ve published a column from our local councillor, John Parker, and one by Carol Burtin Fripp, on behalf of the Leaside Property Owners’ Association. Other pieces have run the gamut from covering local political meetings, to writing about long-time friends, all with a Leaside/Bennington focus. We have opinion pieces, and others that are “just the facts”. We’re fortunate to have skilled local
Lorna Krawchuk Publisher Leaside Life
writers to do this. We’re delivering to 8,500 addresses, to people with a broad range of interests. We want you to read us, whether you’ve lived here “forever,” or moved in a month ago. You’ll notice, however, that we never print editorials. We do not take a stance on any local issue. We do have columnists who take particular positions and we believe that through them we are giving you responsible viewpoints and information. We’re trying something new this month – a pro and con arrangement between two of our writers, Will Ashworth and Geoff Kettel. You’ll know if you’ve been a long-time reader that these two often see things with a different perspective. We let them choose the topic, and then left them to it. In our Letters section, we occasionally probe issues raised in a more in-depth way, but again, we do not espouse a particular position.
Retaining an objective stance is especially important when it comes to local politics. This year’s municipal election takes place on Oct. 27, and we want to assure you that we won’t be endorsing any particular candidate. Our ward covers Leaside/ Bennington, but also Thorncliffe, Flemingdon and Wynford/Concorde, so it’s entirely possible that there will be credible candidates from communities other than Leaside wishing to be our representative for the next four years. As you know, nominations have been open since January. So far no one has come forward wishing to represent Ward 26, either as a councillor or school board trustee, as of our deadline. But there are 26 names on the list of nominated candidates for mayor. We will continue to publish our sitting Ward 26 Councillor John Parker’s monthly column. He has a unique perspective on the happenings at Toronto City Hall that affect us in Leaside. As a general principle, however, we will not publish any material that contains blatant electioneering. ■
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